


Magpie

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Genre: Canon Het Relationship, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Het, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-16 16:36:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13057917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After the Battle of Crait, the Resistance and the First Order are scrambling for power, while Kylo Ren and Rey grapple with their still intact force bond, attempting to make sense of what their prolonged exposure to the other means. Hiding their feelings and keeping them in notebooks, they attempt to find what the other wants, and navigate a safe path to peace. Slowburn Reylo.





	1. Comfort in Uncertainty

_“I know you’re still there.”_

Kylo Ren’s command shuttle had been soaring through hyperspace for hours. It had been four days since the Resistance had escaped the battle of Crait, and without a base or Snoke’s Supremacy to call home, the First Order was in chaos. Leaving Hux to tend to its wounds, he had asked for a week or two to think, alone. Or so he’d said. Standing at the bridge, gazing into the infinite blue, he reached out. He knew she was still there.

 _“I was wondering when you’d actually try this again.”_ Rey replied, from her tiny quarters on the Falcon. Since the battle, what little remained of the Resistance had been fleeing aboard Solo’s craft for days, stopping at small trading planets for fuel, looking for a new home. Curling up in her course calico blankets, she looked despondently into the blue glow outside her window. “There’s no need to be shy, Ben.”

“Why not?” He asked, “I failed to turn you, hunted down and killed more of your friends, including your mentor. Why should you want to talk to me after all that?” As the azure light curled around her window, Rey took a deep, solemn breath.

“In… in these few days we’ve spent trying not to communicate I’ve been giving myself time to think…” She looked into his eyes, trying to gauge a reaction. He gazed back with a soft, hopeful visage. She softened a little. “The way you and I fought together is something I never would’ve wanted to happen.”

“Yeah,” he replied, calmly, “I guess so.”

“Yet it happened, still, we didn’t even need to decide together. It’s like we’d been inside each other’s minds all along,” she deliberated, “and even then, as you killed Snoke, the bridge stayed, strong as ever,” and as she went on, her voice took on a softer, more fried tone; “and after all that… I know, I shouldn’t give you another chance-,”

“You’re not…” He asked, quietly, to no answer. “You’re not saying, you forgive me, are you?”

Silence. The hum of their ships and the eerie nothingness of the galaxy clogging their ears.

“I don’t know…” Rey muttered, feeling goose bumps riddle her arms and chills snake her spine. “Maybe… maybe we shouldn’t be talking.”

“No-,” He blurted out, “Just one more thing.” Patiently, Rey waited. “I get the feeling that both of us are… confused, misguided, whatever you want to call it, and I just want to ask-,”

“What?”

“If… if you’d be okay with us speaking again. Some other time.” The silence that fell between the two deafened to tinnitus. Silent ringing permeated by the thump of their hearts in their throats.

“…Maybe.” She said. A smile creeping across his face, Ben nodded.

“Thank you.” Letting his breath slip out, he watched as Rey faded from his vision, leaving only the red and black interior of his ship, drowned in the ethereal nightly glow of the galaxy. Masking a little grin, Ben reached into his back pocket and pulled out a tiny notebook and pen, pristine and brand new. Pulling back the cover onto the first, blank page, he set his pen to the paper, and with a deep breath, wrote;

_‘It’s possible.’_

Satisfied, he stored the pen and paper in his pocket, and began wandering the ship, bathed in the glowing labyrinth of a million stars.

Head in her hands, Rey sighed, audibly. Her mind was blank, as if she knew what she wanted to think about but couldn’t push close enough to address it. Heavy with worry, she stood up and squeezed out of the closet door of her room, into the curved corridors of the ship, mucky and old with the stains of the past waxing the walls. Walking through the living area, she saw Finn and Rose curled up together in a chair, fast asleep, Leia gazing listlessly into the whirling blue void beyond, and Chewie and Poe, face down on the game table after an exhausting Dejarik match. Before too long, BB-8 rolled over and beeped at her. She knelt and pat the droid on its dome, smiling a bittersweet smile.

“Never gets through to you, huh?” She whispered, enamoured. BB-8 beeped back, adjusting its volume appropriately.

“I guess that’s true.” More beeps. Suddenly, the look of content fascination with the spherical droid left her face, replaced by a look of morbid curiosity. “Say… we don’t have any notebooks on board, do we?” A few beeps. “None of your business, that’s why. I just need somewhere to think.” Quizzical beeps. “Why do they program droids to be so unhelpful?” A barrage of sad, apologetic beeps. Giggling, Rey went on, “I didn’t mean it that way. You’re more of a hero than any of us. But… my question?” Without a beep, BB-8 rolled towards a tiny chest of drawers next to Poe and Chewie, reaching in with a tiny metal arm and producing a well-worn, leather-bound journal, complete with an ancient-looking fountain pen. Breathing a sigh of relief, Rey took them both. She wanted to thank him, but couldn’t quite find the words. Stowing the pen, she pat him once more, before strolling back to her room.

Throwing herself onto the bed, she took her pen in one hand and laid the journal out with the other, seeing a few pages of scrawled notes and schematics, but a few pages over, a blank page, albeit yellowing with age. With a heavy heart, she set pen to paper and wrote at its head;

 _‘How I feel.’_ Before underlining it. Tapping the page with the pen’s blunt end, she sank deep in thought, tensing up and finding it harder and harder to be honest, even in her own company. Then, smirking a little, she wrote;

 _‘I find it hard to tell myself how I feel, even knowing no one else can see.’_ This of all things seemed to help. _‘I need to grit my teeth and say what is on my mind, and write it down here. That’s my promise to me.’_ Grinning a little more, Rey finally felt able to move on and address the issue plaguing her mind. To verbalise it;

_‘I_

She stopped writing. Her hands tensing around the pen. Closing her eyes, forcing herself to move on, she kept going;

_want to forgive Ben Solo.’_

Breathing a deep sigh of relief and catharsis, she laid the pen down. Now go further, she told herself.

 _‘I don’t blame him for his actions, I can’t see the Supreme Leader he wants to be. No matter how many people he kills, nor how much he rejects the light, he looks like a scared, misguided boy with a heart as big as mine.’_ Reading the words back, Rey felt like she should cringe and seize up, not believing what she’d written but… that about summed it up. Closing the journal and putting it to one side with the pen, Rey felt her sunken eyes wanting to close. She wrapped herself up in her rough, uneven bedclothes, and pulled the blinds down over her window into the stars.

Darkness swept the room, save the soft, effervescent gleam of blue from behind the coarse, plastic sheet over the window.

 _“Well… this is awkward.”_ Rey could see Ben, lying in his own chamber, just a few feet away.

“I knew I wasn’t going to get a wink of sleep tonight.” Rey replied, sulkily.

“Yeah, me neither,” Ben replied, “the force doesn’t really care about our sleep schedules, evidently.” Rey hated herself for it, but she mustered a little smile at his lazy, late night quip. “I won’t act like we’re both not exhausted-,”

“Yeah.” Rey murmured, lazily.

“But now that we’re here… is there anything you want to say?” Taking a moment to pause, Rey carefully measured her words. “Rey?”

“Shh. I’m thinking.”

“…Alright.” He said, moving back over and gazing at his ceiling. A time passed that, to Ben, felt like his craft could’ve circled the galaxy a hundred times. His heart in his throat, he awaited her response with baited breath.

“I-,” Rey began;

“Yes?” Ben interrupted immediately. Silence. “Sorry.” Rey chuckled a little, though.

“I want to say that… for all the wrong you’ve done, I can’t act like…”

“Like what?”

“…” Rey gave herself a moment. “Like I don’t want to forgive you, because I do. Ben’s heart was thumping through his chest, and Rey could almost hear it. “This bond isn’t going away. And the more we hate, the more we hide away, the less and less we grow.”

“So…?”

“Let’s just treat each other like we’re not enemies. For the time being, I mean. There’ll come a moment when we have to fight again, and we know that, but… while we’re always being connected like this, hating one another won’t help, you know that, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So… there we are. That’s… that’s how I feel.” Silence gripped the plane between them.

“I like that idea.” Ben said, masking a smile. Nodding gently, Rey replied;

“Good. I think that’s a good place to go from, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Great.” Despite their awkwardly formal way of talking, the pair each had to dampen a smile. Their morals screamed at them to hide, but they couldn’t help wanting to tell the other that everything would be okay.

“I can feel the bond fading again.” Ben said, through a soft chuckle.

“Hm,” Rey muttered back, “Maybe the force wants us to get some rest after all.” They both laughed a little, as they watched the other fade into the mist. And although neither of them could see it, an irreversible grin was carved on both their faces, with a hope for the future singing in their hearts.


	2. Reconsider Your Morals

_I don’t know why, but whenever the bond calls us together, I don’t feel angry anymore. It doesn’t make any sense. My command vessel returned to one of our remaining capital ships this morning, and before Hux could even greet me, my teeth were clenched, and I felt like slamming him into a wall, there and then. I know that isn’t normal. I know I can’t abuse my subordinates like that, a Supreme Leader must carry himself in a certain way... but even still, in my time alone with her, that anger just melted away, almost instantly. I know what it points to, I’m not an idiot… but it feels so hard to put that feeling into words. If she had only agreed, my efforts as Supreme Leader would be so much easier. But I suppose she’d be the one to tell me not to get hung up on what could’ve been. What we have now is better than nothing, and I need to respect that. I’m going to talk to her again tonight._

Setting his pen and paper down, Kylo Ren gazed longingly at the ceiling of his bedchambers aboard the First Order’s largest remaining Capital Ship, in the wake of the destruction of the Supremacy it had aptly been named; “The Dominance.” The room he slept in was enormous, a hundred square feet at least.

_BANG._

A deafening knock on the metal door to his left. Begrudgingly, he slid off his bed and walked lazily toward it. Waving his hand at the identifier next to the door, it slides upward, revealing a disgruntled Armitage Hux on the other side.

“Supreme Leader.” He said, his demanding tone dripping with resentment, “Our newest legion of Storm Troopers has been waiting for their morning address for hours. Where have you been?” His words portrayed no anger, yet the growl beneath them set Kylo on edge from the very start.

“I apologize,” Ren replied, as formally as he could muster, “I’ve been finding it hard to sleep. I’ll go right away.” He started walking down the ship’s matte black corridors immediately, giving no regard to the general, eager to get him out of his sight.

“Your excellence…” Hux called. Slowing down, Kylo took all the energy in his body to stow away his frustration and turn, passively, toward the general. “Not only have you taken more than two weeks to recuperate your ‘losses’, but in that time, you have done nothing to consider the growing fragility of our forces.”

“Are you questioning my authority, Armitage?” Kylo snapped back, teeth clenched. Taken aback on hearing his forename, Hux began squawking and bumbling about formality and unorthodoxy, another voice was calling from behind him.

“Ben?” She called to him. Out of the corner of his eye, Kylo could see Rey, standing in the corridor behind him, same clothes as she always wore, her eyes concerned, caring, almost. As Hux went on, and on, Rey walked closer. She could see the tension beneath Ben’s cheeks as his teeth gnawed at one another, his forehead veins bursting, his nails digging into the leather on the palms of his gloves. In that moment, she could feel an odd mixture of nervousness and intrigue. Taking a few steps forward, she stood behind him, and laid a hand, gently, on his shoulder. His chest drew in as he exhaled like a gunshot. Pause. Without a word, Ben turned back to Hux, his face relaxing.

“I’m sorry, General Hux.” He said, calmly.

“Excuse me?” Hux replied, shocked.

“It was below me to disregard formalities. I’ve been unprofessional in missing the opportunity to address our troops, and I’ll be transparent in my address. The soldiers of the First Order deserve that. I should, as well, treat you with proper respect.” Stunned, General Hux bowed, choking a little. Ben turned to continue down the corridor, turning toward Rey. He bowed to her, and she to him, before he marched on toward his soldiers, and she faded from his vision once again.

 

The Millennium Falcon had just touched down on Naboo, hoping to fuel up and trade for supplies. Poe had gone with Chewie and Finn to sweet-talk the local authorities, leaving Leia, Rey and BB-8 to mind the ship. Squeezing out of her cupboard-sized room again, Rey found Leia sitting near motionless in her chair. The aging general shuffled a little as the young Jedi wandered in.

“Get enough sleep?” She asked, her voice withering and cloaked in gravel.

“I think so.” Rey responded, softly. She felt like she didn’t want to wake her, even though she was still awake. Leia didn’t say anything else. She seemed to look straight past Rey like she wasn’t even there. “How are you holding up?” She asks, perkily.

“Oh… me?” Leia asked, almost quizzically, before she chuckled, “That’s war, Rey. Everyone taking part knows the risks, Luke, Holdo… Han, all of them.” Rey took a seat next to her. “You know… I’d like to think as soon as anyone signs up to fight in a war, they’re already prepared to lose everything. Why else would anyone be so selfless?” Rey nodded along, her eyes trailing the cabin. “But to tell you the truth… I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want this all to be over at last.” She took a long, worn-out breath. “We tell ourselves a lot about why we keep fighting and how it’s all for the greater good and all that, but… I don’t think anyone who says it has really seen what it’ll do to people.” Turning to Rey, she smiled, meekly. “I’m sorry, Rey, I know it’s a heavy subject.”

“It’s alright,” she answered, mustering a grin, “After everything you’ve been through I’m happy to at least hear about it.” Leia nodded. She looked like she was about to start talking again, but instead, laid back and stared at the wall again. “General?”

“Hm?”

“I was wondering if I could get a moment to wander outside the ship.”

“Oh-,” Leia smiled, “You don’t need to ask me for that. Go, get some of that fresh, clean air. Better than this load of junk.” Smiling, Rey thanked Leia, got up and left. On her way to the airlock, she stopped by her room and pocketed her notebook and pen. Tapping the secure lock on the side of the door, she watched as the ramp hissed and lowered down to the thick, lush green grass of Theed. Tucking the notebook into her back pocket, she started strolling the palace ramparts, looking down on the vibrant and bustling city below. It felt odd to her, that after so much toil and conflict, such a perfectly bright and beautiful planet could still stay intact, like a sunflower in a barren of cursed soil. As she walked, she came across a balcony with a stone bench overlooking a canopy of trees, the centre of which cleared to show a colourful park, with children playing, people sitting and reading, having tea and cakes, and couples strolling, hand in hand, down the sunlit streets. With a sigh, she took a seat, and opened her notebook to the next page.

_Things I don’t want to accept._

Underline. Adding a bullet point, she went on;

  * _I can calm the most powerful man in the galaxy._
  * _Leia Organa wants the war to end._
  * _Luke, Han, Ackbar and countless rebels are dead._
  * _Finn, Poe, Rose and Leia might die too._



She started breathing much heavier, suddenly. Her hand started to shake. Outlying the next point, she wrote;

  * _Ben might have been right._



She started at what she wrote for what felt like eons. Passers by looked down at the girl with her notebook, and not once did she look up and try to hide what she’d written.

As the Falcon made the jump to lightspeed, Rey practically poured over her six lines in her notebook, over and over, hardly dull to their meaning, but wanting to be. Heart beating, she looked into the swirling blue void of the galaxy… and reached out.

_“Already?”_

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone- this is an orphaned work. I'm starting a new one which is gonna be much longer, you can read it here - http://archiveofourown.org/works/13195446/chapters/30183792
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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